Nick
Berg's Beheading - Serious Questions
Raised
in Australia's Top Newspaper
Dear
friends,
Immediately
after the beheading of Nick Berg early this year, I received numerous emails
from various researcher's providing evidence that Nick Berg was not actually
killed by terrorists. It may have been a sophisticated disinformation campaign
in order to distract attention from the Abu Ghraib torture scandals which
had hit the news not long before. Unfortunately, though their arguments
were quite convincing, none of these researchers were quoting what I consider
to be reliable sources.
Then
just recently Dyson Devine, a researcher from www.gaiaguys.net in Australia, sent me the
below article from the Sydney Morning Herald, Australia’s most
respected newspaper. It is quite refreshing to see this critical information
on Nick Berg being reported in the mainstream media. Things are not always
what they seem. See www.WantToKnow.info/brighterfuture
for a concise description of the big picture and what we can do about it.
With
very best wishes,
Fred
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/28/1085641717320.html
Who killed Nick Berg?
Conspiracy theories about how the kidnapped American died
in Iraq are flying around the world. Richard Neville explores the
explanations.
Iraq
in flames, Washington an object of disgust. What to do? At this pivotal
moment, CNN and Fox News are tipped off to a clip of an American citizen
being beheaded. The victim is a 26-year-old idealist from Pennsylvania, Nick
Berg. Despite the perpetrators being masked, the vile deed is deemed the work
of al-Qaeda.
The
clip was first "discovered" on an Islamic website in Malaysia. Its
Arabic title reads "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi shown slaughtering an
American". al-Zarqawi is a 38-year-old Jordanian militant who fled to
Iraq in 2001 after reportedly losing a leg in a US missile strike.
al-Zarqawi's face is widely known and he credits himself with the deed, so
why a mask?
The
timing of the video was brilliant for the West. Media pundits judged the
crime a deeper evil than the systemic torture of innocent Iraqis. But some
people sensed a rat. But if it was not al-Qaeda, who? Surely not Uncle Sam.
That's too dark, even for the CIA.
While
this video shows a human body having its head chopped off, it does not
necessarily portray an act of murder. Berg's headless body was found dumped
on a Baghdad roadside on Saturday, May 8.
Three
days later, the "live beheading" clip was uploaded from London to
the Malaysian website http://www.al-ansar.biz The statement in the video is signed with
al-Zarqawi's name, dated May 11. After Fox News and CNN had downloaded the
video, it disappeared from the site.
As
no autopsy is available, little is known about the state of the body. No time
of death, no forensic analysis. On April 6, a month before the discovery of
the corpse, Berg had been released from custody. But whose custody?
Dan
Senor, adviser to the US Presidential Envoy in Iraq, has said Berg was never
held by the Americans. Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the Coalition's deputy
head of operations, claimed he was in the custody of Iraqi police from March
24 to April 6. However, the Iraqi police chief, Major-General Mohammed Khair
al-Barhawi, told Associated Press "the Iraqi police never arrested the
slain American".
Berg's
family are certain his jailers were the US military. His father, Michael, had
been told so by the FBI. He has produced an email from a US consular official
in Baghdad, Beth Payne, confirming that his son was in the hands of the US.
(Later, another official said this was an error.) On April 5 in the Philadelphia
office of the US Supreme Court, the Berg family had launched an action
against the US military for false imprisonment. The following day, Berg was
released.
The
issue of custody is significant; in his final moments on screen Berg is
wearing an orange jumpsuit of the kind familiar from Guantanamo Bay. The
official reasons for Berg's arrest were "lack of documentation" and
"suspicious activities". He carried sensitive electronic equipment
for which he lacked documents. In custody, he was visited three times by the
FBI. Such interviews are bound to have been recorded but no transcripts have
been produced.
After
his release, Berg travelled to Baghdad and the $30-a-night Al-Fanar Hotel. A
fellow hotel guest told Newsday that Berg recounted how Iraqi police
had quickly handed him to US authorities in Mosul and that he had been held
the entire time in a jail where his guards were US soldiers.
Berg
was in Baghdad to win contracts for his family firm, Prometheus Methods Tower
Service, a provider of communications facilities. He often "worked at
night on a tower in the neighbourhood of Abu Ghraib", according to The
New York Times.
The
family last heard from him on April 9, when he said he was planning to leave
Iraq via Kuwait as soon as it was safe. Berg was last seen walking with his
bags the following day, apparently hoping to find his way through the turmoil
engulfing the city and make it to the border.
On
March 7, 2004, two weeks before his arrest in Mosul, an "enemies
list" had been posted on a conservative website, FreeRepublic.com The list was compiled from signatories to
an anti-war petition, and its implied purpose was to encourage readers to
harass those it named.
Berg's
father was on that list, as was the family firm, Prometheus. This information
may well have triggered the arrest of Berg in Iraq.
Berg's
politics are not clear. His father, Michael, has described his son as a
"staunch supporter" of US President George Bush. Friends said Nick
believed he could help rebuild Iraq "one radio tower at a time".
According to The New York Times, he was attracted to the Hebrew
concept of tikkun olam - healing the world through social action.
The
first few seconds of the video shows Berg sitting on a white plastic chair in
an orange jumpsuit. He speaks directly to the camera in a relaxed way:
"My name is Nick Berg ... I have a brother and sister, David and Sara. I
live in Philadelphia." His white chair is identical to those in the
photographs of the Abu Ghraib prison tortures, but such chairs are probably
common in Iraq. It is highly likely that this segment is edited from the
interrogation of Berg during his 13 days of custody.
In
the next scene, Berg is sitting on the floor with five masked figures
standing behind him. We do not see the figures enter. Berg looks lifeless,
though his body appears to make slight movements. A man reads a lengthy
Arabic statement in a passionless monotone. He is identified as "Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi", a Jordanian associate of Osama bin Laden who is tied
to dozens of terrorist acts.
Yet
a leaflet recently circulated in Falluja, by no means a reliable source,
claims that al-Zarqawi was killed in the Sulaimaniya mountains of northern
Iraq during a US bombing. A US military report last month has claimed
al-Zarqawi was killed in the bombing of Falluja.
Also,
the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, has said that al-Zarqawi was fitted
with a prosthetic leg in a Baghdad hospital, yet the tape shows no evidence
of a limp. CNN staff familiar with al-Zarqawi's voice have been quoted as
saying the voice does not sound like his.
Among
the many curiosities raised on the web about the fanatical five are:
·
They are well-fed, fidgety, and reveal glimpses of white skin.
·
Their Arabic is heavily accented (Russian, Jordanian, Egyptian).
·
An aside in Russian had been translated as "do it quickly".
·
One character wears wears bulky white tennis shoes.
·
The man on the far left stands in the familiar "at ease" military
posture.
·
The men's scarves are worn and tied by people who "haven't a clue",
says conspiracy theorist Hector Carreon, like actors in Hollywood movies.
·
There is even a voice at the end that seems to ask in English, "How will
it be done?" http://www.aztlan.net/nick_berg_how_done.htm
None
of this proves a grand conspiracy, but it does raise questions. In the final
segment of the tape, Berg is thrown to the ground, but doesn't move. During
the decapitation, starting at the front of the throat, there is little sign
of blood. The scream is wildly out of sync, sounds female, and is obviously
dubbed.
Dr
John Simpson, executive director for surgical affairs at the Royal
Australasian College of Surgeons, told Ritt Goldstein of the Asia Times,
"I would have thought that all the people in the vicinity would have
been covered in blood, in a matter of seconds ... if it [the video] was
genuine".
Simpson
agrees with other experts who find it highly probable that Berg had died
before his decapitation.
But
there is still the problem of Berg's slight body movements while sitting on
the floor, before the beheading. According to a blogger (internet diarist),
Nick Possum, "this footage was subsequently modified frame by frame to
make Berg's body move very occasionally". Apparently, this can be
achieved with "commonly available software". http://www.brushtail.com.au/nick_berg_hypothesis.html
Possum
believes "the available evidence surrounding the case suggests that it
was a 'black operation' by US psychological warfare specialists ... to
provide the media with a moral relativity argument to counter the adverse
publicity over torture at Abu Ghraib". The use of FBI footage in the
opening sequence, if confirmed, suggests the involvement of high-level US
Government operatives.
I
do not know who killed Nick Berg, or how he died. But there's something fishy
about this video.
In
the end, the question is: who killed Nick Berg, and why?
For another interesting article on Berg’s strange connections in the New
York Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/193331p-166984c.html
And an article on CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Northeast/05/13/berg.encounter/
See our archive of revealing news articles at http://www.WantToKnow.info/medianewsarticles
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Nick Berg
